by Dave Westerman

Photo Courtesy of CG Photography

Another big crowd of fans was treated to some great racing action on a very warm and muggy Saturday evening at Auburndale Speedway as the track played host to nine classes of racers.

The Auburndale Trucks were back in action after a few weeks off and Keith Lilley once again took over the wheel of Wally Warwick’s HobbyCrap.com Chevrolet and picked up his third feature win of the season. Jim Cowhey, Jr. had his truck running better than it has all season as he dominated the heat race then took off like a rocket in the feature.

The veteran Lilley was not to be denied however as he tracked down Cowhey and made the pass for the lead on lap eight. From that point Lilley checked out on the field and Cowhey had more than enough horsepower to finish well ahead of third place Michael Smith as the 25 lap headliner went green to checker without a yellow flag. Tommy King crossed the stripe in fourth trailed by Tim Sozio. Roger Blevins, Brent Tyler (with a new sponsor Cleanse-All), David Hartin, Zach Harris and Cheyne Hammond rounded out the top ten as the entire field completed the distance and on the lead lap.

Dave Dunkin added to his Auburndale Speedway win total with his seventh Sportsman victory of the season for new sponsor Patriot Chevrolet of Dade City. After winning the heat race, Dunkin was in a class to himself in the feature and was lucky to be well in front coming to the checkered flag. On paper, the race ran all the way without a caution flag, but a wild scramble coming to the stripe saw the second through fourth place drivers get tangled up resulting in damage to the cars of Richard Elkins, Jr., Brandon Duchscherer and Mark Medeiros. That allowed Lance Daubach, who took the white flag in fifth place, to finish as runner-up followed by Bobby Mobley, Richard Fiore and Medeiros.

Fans were expecting to see a knock-down, drag-out feature in the Street Stocks after a pair of heat races that saw plenty of wild action and rough driving penalties. First heat winner Larry Braswell never showed for the main event so that put second heat winner Bobby Mobley on the pole and he made the most of it by going wire to wire for his third victory of the year. The slam-bang race that was expected never materialized as the drivers settled down and ran the full 20 lap distance under green. Cody McDuffie chased Mobley to the checker trailed by Kyle Hall, Kyle Peters and point leader Matt McCrary. James Wright III and Dave Colpritt got into a fender-wanging duel in their heat race and were penalized to the rear of the starting grid in the feature but came on to finish sixth and seventh respectively in the very competitive field. Jeff Waterman, Levi Parsons and David Gould completed the top ten.

The Legend Cars had run back-to-back features with no yellow flags but that would not be the case on this evening. Mason Ketterman won the opening heat race and had the pole for the feature and grabbed an early lead. Kory Abbott, making his first start of the year here, won the second heat after starting dead last and was starting to challenge Ketterman when something broke on his car and he abruptly slowed exiting turn two. All but Jake Perkins were able to avoid Abbott’s stalled car. Perkins winged the Abbott machine and suffered enough damage to end his race prematurely.

Ketterman set the pace on the restart only to be slowed on lap four by a Zach Napoleon spin in turn two. Lap eight saw Dave Gleason and Justin Brown lock horns in turn two while battling for second place. Brown was sent to the rear of the field while Gleason was given his spot back. Following the restart, Tyler Smith passed Gleason for second on lap eleven and set sail after the leader.

Lap 13 saw the fourth caution of the race as Seth Adams and point leader Gerald White, Jr. tangled in turn three. With Smith doing all he could to get by Ketterman, the action was slowed once again on lap 18 as Adams was black-flagged for rough driving. Ketterman, who was looking for his first Auburndale win, slipped high coming off turn two on lap 23 allowing Smith to duck underneath and take the lead. Just as the field was getting the white flag, Napoleon and Dakota Baggette collided coming off turn four and got their bumpers locked together. Napoleon was towed off while Baggette was able to continue. Smith led the final lap to claim his third win of the year while Brown apparently passed Ketterman for second but was penalized one spot for passing on the inside before the green flag on a restart.

Ketterman was thusly awarded the second spot with Brown credited with a third place finish. Gleason came home fourth and Lynn Wiles fifth. Point leader White battled a sick engine to take the checker in sixth with Corey White, making his first-ever Legend Car start after running in the Mini Cup division, getting seventh. Leroy Moore was eight with Roger “Tail Bone” Englund ninth and Baggette recovered for tenth.

The Mini Stock feature was yet another race run without benefit of a caution flag. Jason Swilley led the opening eleven laps but could not hold off a charging Gary Brown, Jr. who completed the pass and led the remainder of the distance for his second win since joining the class a few weeks ago. Fred Harrison, Jr. gave chase but had to settle for second while Swilley held off heat winner Chris Spring for third. James Pate was fifth.

The V-8 Bombers also ran their race green to checker with no yellow flags and it was an easy run for James Wright, Jr. as he led flag to flag for win number two of 2010. Larry Chumney, Sr. made a late charge and was catching the leader but ran out of laps and settled for second place. Preston Davis was third followed by Jeff Lacey and Josh Borem.

The Scrambler feature saw just one caution as T. J. Tanner pounded the wall coming off turn four on lap two. Tanner was OK and actually drove his damaged car to the pits. That would be the only slow down of the Scambler 15-lapper as Richie Acres led start to finish in his Saturn and take his fourth win of the year. Point leader Brian Tyre took second in his Dodge Neon while Kim Gullett took third in her Honda. Richard Brown drove his Dodge Daytona to fourth with Bobby Rowland taking fifth in a Dodge Omni.

Heat winner Heather Guy had problems and could not make the start of the Kids Club feature. That allowed Dakota Hunt to score her second straight win as she took the victory over Brandon Guy and new drivers Drew Kingsley and Justin Cribbs.

Andy Metz claimed his second Bandolero win of the year halting Teddy Lively’s win streak at six. Lively finished a close second to Metz while Jake Hunter took third over Cameron White.

This week, Aug. 21, the oval track will be closed due to a three day special Karting event. Stock car races will resume on Aug. 28 featurning the Open Wheel Modifieds, Street Stocks, Mini Stocks, Modified Mini Stocks, V-8 Bombers, Scramblers, Legend Cars, Bandoleros and The Southeast Champ Karts. Racing starts at 7 PM. For more information call 863-551-1131 or log on to www.auburndaleracing.com. The Auburndale Go-Karts page on the website has the link for the schedule of the kart races this weekend.OFFICIAL RESULTS – AUBURNDALE SPEEDWAY – 8/14/10:
 
AUBURNDALE TRUCKS:
1-#72 Keith Lilley
2-#2 Jim Cowhey,  Jr.
3-#23 Michael Smith
4-#1 Tommy King
5-#16 Tim Sozio
6-#15 Roger Blevins
7-#99 Brent Tyler
8-#25 David Hartin
9-#54 Zack Harris
10-#18 Cheyne Hammond

SPORTSMAN:
1-#71 Dave Dunkin
2-#77 Lance Daubach
3-#47 Bobby Mobley
4-#60 Richard Fiore
5-#13 Mark Medeiros
6-#55 Richard Elkins, Jr.
8-#22 Brandon Duchscherer
9-#8 Chuck Harrison, Jr.

STREET STOCKS:
1-#29 Bobby Mobley
2-#25 Cody McDuffie
3-#17 Kyle Hall
4-#53 Kyle Peters
5-#5 Matt McCrary
6-#56 James Wright III
7-#4 Dave Colpritt
8-#42 Jeff Waterman
9-#41 Levi Parsons
10-#16D David Gould
11-#142 Chris Spring
12-#86 Jamie Castleberry
13-#08 Justin Haranda
DNS #80 Larry Braswell

LEGEND CARS:
1-#4 Tyler Smith
2-#71 Mason Ketterman
3-#8 Justin Brown
4-#17 Dave Gleason
5-#31 Lynn Wiles
6-#38 Gerald White, Jr.
7-#2 Corey White
8-#99 Leroy Moore
9-#51 Roger Englund
10-#7 Dakota Baggette
11-#11 Daniel Conlin, Sr.
12-#4R Zach Napoleon
13-#5A Kory Abbott
14-#59 Jake Perkins
15-#5 Seth Adams

MINI STOCKS:
1-#52 Gary Brown, Jr.
2-#21 Fred Harrison, Jr.
3-#40 Jason Swiley
4-#42 Chris Spring
5-#155 James Pate
6-#4 Marilyn McCrary
7-#11 Josh Borem
8-#551 Mark Wells
9-#24 Gene Harrison

V-8 BOMBERS:
1-#56 James Wright, Jr.
2-#96 Larry Chumney, Sr.
3-#89 Preston Davis
4-#105 Jeff Lacey
5-#111 Josh Borem
6-#51 Matt Johns
7-#05 Buddy Phillips, Jr.
8-#81 Mark Roadarmel
9-#7 Frank Pierce
DNS #33 Derrick Trocke
DNS #29 Michael Smith

SCRAMBLERS:
1-#8 Richie Acres
2-#66 Brian Tyre
3-#28 Kimberly Gullett
4-#62 Richard Brown
5-#18 Bobby Rowland
6-#19 Mike Lacey
7-#67 T.J.Tanner

BANDOLEROS:
1-#48 Andy Metz
2-#96 Teddy Lively
3-#03 Jacob Hunter
4-#38 Cameron White
DNS #11 Daniel Conlin, Jr.

KIDS CLUB:
1-#99 Dakota Hunt
2-#32 Brandon Guy
3-#18 Justin Cribbs
4-#55 Drew Kingsley
DNS #30 Heather Guy